Abstract:

When students first enter counseling programs, they are required to take a prepracticum counseling skills course, which they must successfully pass before being allowed to work with clients. This course is taught using many different methods, the most common of which is through a practical experience where students practice counseling skills while using peer-counseling students as clients. Generally, students receive live supervision. Some programs rely on one person to supervise all students, while other programs utilize multiple supervisors who rotate through groups of students and work with all students at some point during the semester. While it is known that the relationships students develop with their supervisors can impact students' self-efficacy and skill competence, it is unknown whether having one supervisor or multiple rotating supervisors contributes to or impacts student success. This study sought to determine if having one supervisor or multiple rotating supervisors affects students' overall success, as defined by grades and counseling self efficacy. Self efficacy is a supervisee's beliefs or judgments about her/his capability to effectively counsel a client in the near future (Larson & Daniels, 1998), and for the purpose of this study, is measured by the Counselor Self-Estimate Inventory (COSE). Participants in the study were all students enrolled in a pre-practicum counseling skills course at a mid-sized northwestern university for the duration of one academic year. Participants received supervision either from a permanent assigned supervisor or from multiple rotating supervisors. At the conclusion of the course, students responded to the COSE and a demographic survey. COSE scores and grades were examined, and it was determined that students with permanent assigned supervisors had higher final grades than did students with multiple rotating supervisors. The findings of this study imply that a permanent assigned supervisory structure may contribute to helping counseling students develop stronger counseling skills. Additional follow-up research is needed to further explore this suggestion.